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Twitter CEO: Users will be able to download all tweets by year-end

During a keynote address at the Online News Association conference in San Francisco on Friday, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo revealed that a new tool will soon be rolled out by the popular microblogging site to allow its users to download their entire archive of tweets.

According to the information shared by Costolo with the interviewers at the conference, the new tool will equip users with the much-desired capability to download their full tweet history; and, for Twitter, it is "a priority we absolutely want to have out by the end of the year."

Noting that, by 2012-end, selections of tweets can be handpicked and published by Twitter users with the help of the new `free' tool, Costolo said that the move will essentially reflect that Twitter remains committed to its decision of being a neutral, interactive platform, instead of projecting itself as a traditional media company.

The announcement of the new tool - which follows Twitter's recent restriction of access of tweets only via its website or official app - implies that it will be possible for users, including journalists, to manually curate as well as display tweets to go with breaking news events.

About the need for the new tool, Costolo said that Twitter has been aware, for a long time, of the fact that "for events in the real world, the shared experience is on Twitter," and added: "We want to create an ability to curate those events."